System and method for mitigating unintended operation

ABSTRACT

A system and method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls is described herein. The system and method analyze data and/or signals received from sensors to determine when the vehicle is experiencing changes the in the vehicle&#39;s direction, dynamic state and/or status. The analysis may be applied to data and/or signals from one or more sensors alone or in combination. Analysis of the data and/or signals may determine that one or more criterion are met and therefore the vehicle may be an identified state. When the vehicle is in an identified state, the system and method may disable, deaden or otherwise modify the response to one or more controls in order to mitigate unintended operation.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of in-vehicle controls. Inparticular, to a system and method for mitigating the unintendedoperation of in-vehicle controls.

2. Related Art

Many types of vehicles have vehicle-operator interfaces that include oneor more controls to be operated by the operator or occupants of thevehicle. The controls may, for example, take the form of buttons,levers, knobs, touch-sensitive surfaces and other similar control types.

Due, at least in part, to the dynamic nature of vehicle motion and thefocus demanded by operation of the vehicle, in some circumstancescontrols may be unintentionally actuated or operated by the driver oroccupants of the vehicle. In an illustrative example for an automobileequipped with steering wheel mounted controls, a driver mayunintentionally operate a steering wheel mounted control (e.g.hands-free call termination, audio volume up or down, cruise controlset) as a result of hand-over-hand movement when making a tight turn.The unintended operation of the controls may result in driverfrustration, driver distraction or unsafe vehicle operation.

It is desirable to mitigate unintended operation of in-vehicle controlsthat may result in operator frustration, operator distraction or unsafevehicle operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The system and method may be better understood with reference to thefollowing drawings and description. The components in the figures arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed uponillustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the figures,like referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout thedifferent views.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withthis description and be protected by the following claims.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system for mitigatingunintended operation of in-vehicle controls.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of example controls in anautomobile.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram representing a method for mitigating unintendedoperation of in-vehicle controls.

FIG. 4 is a further schematic representation of a system for mitigatingunintended operation of in-vehicle controls.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehiclecontrols is described herein. The system and method analyze data and/orsignals received from sensors to determine when the vehicle isexperiencing changes in the vehicle's direction, dynamic state and/orstatus. The analysis may be applied to data and/or signals from one ormore sensors alone or in combination. Analysis of the data and/orsignals may determine that one or more criterion are met and thereforethe vehicle may be an identified state. When the vehicle is in anidentified state, the system and method may disable, deaden or otherwisemodify the response to one or more controls in order to mitigateunintended operation.

Many types of vehicles have vehicle-operator interfaces that include oneor more controls intended to be actuated by the operator or occupants ofthe vehicle. The vehicle types may include automobiles, trucks, buses,motorcycles, snowmobile, watercraft, aircraft, and other similarvehicles that transport an operator and/or occupants. The controls may,for example, take the form of buttons, levers, knobs, touch-sensitivesurfaces and other similar control types. The controls may operatevarious functions such as audio volume setting, media selection,playback mode, channel selection, cruise controlactivation/deactivation, cruise speed setting, hands-free callmanagement, transmission gear selection, navigation system settings,climate control settings and other similar functions available foroperation by the operator and/or occupants of the vehicle. Unintendedoperation of a control may include inadvertent operation ormisoperation. Misoperation may include intend actuation of the controlwith unexpected or unintended results.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system for mitigatingunintended operation of in-vehicle controls. The system 100 may includea mitigation logic unit 102, one or more sensors 104, one or morecontrols 106 and one or more function controllers 108. Each of the oneor more controls 106 may be associated with one or more of the functioncontrollers 108 and each of the one or more function controllers 108 maybe associated with one or more of the controls 106. The sensors 104provide input data and/or signals to the mitigation logic unit 102. Theone or more sensors 104 may include sensors such as, for example, asteering wheel position sensor, an accelerometer (including a multi-axisaccelerometer), yaw sensor, pitch sensor, roll sensor, inclinationsensor, braking indicator, speedometer, skid detector, airbag deploymentindicator and other similar vehicle sensors. The data and/or signalsreceived by the mitigation logic unit 102 may be used alone or incombination to determine or infer changes in the vehicle's direction,dynamic state, and/or status. The data and/or signals received by themitigation logic unit 102 may be stored including being stored as anhistorical sequence of data and/or signal values.

Changes in the vehicle's direction, dynamic state, and/or status such asturning, accelerating, braking or skidding may contribute to unintendedoperation of the controls 106 by the operator and/or the occupants.Changes in the vehicle's attitude or direction may cause the operator oroccupants to be thrown forward, back or sideways making it difficult tooperate controls 106 properly or causing inadvertent contact with one ormore control 106.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of example controls in anautomobile. Example controls (collectively 106) in an automobile cabinmay include steering-wheel mounted buttons 106A, steering column stalks106B, a gear shift lever 106C, dashboard mounted knobs 106D and buttons106E, and a touch display interface 106F. These controls 106 may provideinput data and/or signals to function controllers 108 for functions suchas turn signals (aka direction indicators), wiper/washer system,audio/infotainment system, hands-free telephony, cruise control,drivetrain/gear selection, heating ventilation and cooling (HVAC),navigation and other similar vehicle functions. These example controls106 are illustrative in nature and are not intended to be limiting inany way.

The mitigation logic unit 102 may analyze the data and/or signalsreceived from the sensors 104 to determine when the vehicle isexperiencing changes the in the vehicle's direction, dynamic stateand/or status. The data and/or signals analyzed may be current value,historical values or combinations of both. The data and/or signal may beretrieved from a storage media 110. The storage media 110 may beintegral to the mitigation logic unit 102, may be separate from themitigation logic unit 102 or may be a combination of partially integraland partially separate. The analysis may be applied to data and/orsignals from any of one or more sensors 104 alone or in combination.Analysis of the data and/or signals may determine that one or morecriterion are met and therefore the vehicle may be in an identifiedstate. When the vehicle is in an identified state, the system 100 maydisable, deaden or otherwise modify the response to one or more controls106. When the analysis determines that one or more of the criterion areno longer met, the identified state may be abated and the response tothe one or more controls 106 may be restored to normal operation.

The one or more criterion (criteria) used in the analysis may includefor example a steering-wheel angle exceeding a threshold (e.g. a tightturn) or the steering-wheel angle in combination with a vehicle speed(e.g. a speed-relative tight turn). Other example criteria may includeyaw, pitch or roll indicators exceeding a threshold or a rate of changeof any of these exceeding a threshold (e.g. vehicle skid or roll-overoccurring or imminent). Further example criteria may include an incomingcall indication, navigation system instructional prompt indication,rough road surface detected, braking exceeding a threshold, accelerationexceeding a threshold and other similar criteria. The one or morecriterion may be used to determine the on-set, and abatement, of one ormore identifiable states. The identified states are typically, but notlimited to, transient (e.g. having short time duration) in nature.

The mitigation logic unit 102 may have pre-determined, pre-programmed oruser configurable response templates that include the criteria used todetermine when an identified state occurs and what control interventionsto take when the identified state occurs. The interventions may includedisabling, deadening or otherwise modifying the response to one or morecontrols 106. The interventions may, for example, include disablingactivation or changes in the operation of the windshield wipers,disabling activation or changes in the operation of the cruise controlsystem, disabling inputs to the infotainment unit (e.g. volume, channelor track selection), disabling activation or changes in the operation ofthe hands free telephony system. Alternatively, the interventions mayinclude deadening the response of a control by, for example, requiring alonger time duration operation (e.g. long button press) of the controlto activate a corresponding function. Alternatively, or in addition, theintervention may include modifying the response to a control by, forexample, requiring a further confirmation action after an initialcontrol operation in order to activate a corresponding function. Furtheralternatively, or in addition, the intervention may include modifyingthe response to a control by, for example, disabling or modifying one ormore modes available for activating a multi-modal controlled function.For example, a navigation function that normally accepts control inputsin multiple modes, such as touch-screen presses and voice commands, mayonly accept voice commands (but not touch-screen presses) when anidentified state such as the vehicle swerving is occurring. The exampleinterventions described therein are illustrative in nature and are notintended to be limiting in any way.

The interventions made by the mitigation logic unit 102 may be carriedout by the mitigation logic unit modifying or cancelling an input from acontrol 106 before it reaches a corresponding function controller 108,by providing additional input to the function controller 108 to cause itto modify its response to the input received from the control 106, or bya combination of these two approaches. The mitigation logic unit 102 mayintervene to concurrently modify the response provided by one or morefunction controllers 108 to inputs received from one or more controls106.

FIG. 3 is a representation of a method for mitigating unintendedoperation of in-vehicle controls. The method 300 may be, for example,implemented using either of the systems 100 and 400 described hereinwith reference to FIGS. 1 and 4. The method 300 may include thefollowing acts. Associating one or more control interventions with anidentified state 302. The association of interventions for one or morecontrols 106 with each of one or more identified states may bepre-determined, pre-programmed or user configurable. In addition,associating interventions with an identified state nay include thecriteria used to determine when an identified state occurs. Either orboth of the interventions and criteria associated with an identifiedstate may be included in one or more response templates. Receiving dataand/or signals from one or more sensors 304. The one or more sensors andthe data and/or signals received from the sensors may include any ofthose described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Analyzing thereceived data and/or signals 306. Analyzing the received data and/orsignals may include applying criteria as described above with referenceto FIG. 1. Determining when an identified state is occurring 308. Anidentified state may be determined to occur when one or more thresholdsare exceeded and/or one or more indications are received as describedabove with reference to FIG. 1. Modify response of one or more controls310. The response of the one or more controls may be modified asdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Determining abatementof identified state 312. The identified state may be determined to be inabatement (e.g. no longer occurring) when the criteria used in act 308are no longer met. Restoring the control responses 314. Restoring thecontrol responses may include returning the responses to the state theyhad before they were modified in act 310. Alternatively, or in addition,restoring the control responses may include putting the controlresponses in a state they would otherwise have had were they notmodified in act 310.

FIG. 4 is a further schematic representation of a system for mitigatingunintended operation of in-vehicle controls. The system 400 comprises aprocessor 402, memory 404 (the contents of which are accessible by theprocessor 402) and an I/O interface 406. The memory 404 may storeinstructions which when executed using the process 402 may cause thesystem 400 to render the functionality associated with the mitigationlogic unit 102 and one or more function controllers 108 as describedherein. In addition the memory 404 may store data and/or signals 110received from one or more controls 106 and criteria associated with oneor more identified states, including response templates, as describedherein 408.

The processor 402 may comprise a single processor or multiple processorsthat may be disposed on a single chip, on multiple devices ordistributed over more than one system. The processor 402 may be hardwarethat executes computer executable instructions or computer code embodiedin the memory 404 or in other memory to perform one or more features ofthe system. The processor 402 may include a general purpose processor, acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digitalcircuit, an analog circuit, a microcontroller, any other type ofprocessor, or any combination thereof.

The memory 404 may comprise a device for storing and retrieving data,processor executable instructions, or any combination thereof. Thememory 404 may include non-volatile and/or volatile memory, such as arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), or a flash memory. The memory 404may comprise a single device or multiple devices that may be disposed onone or more dedicated memory devices or on a processor or other similardevice. Alternatively or in addition, the memory 404 may include anoptical, magnetic (hard-drive) or any other form of data storage device.

The memory 404 may store computer code, such as instructions forproviding the functions of the mitigation logic unit 102 and one or morefunction controllers 108 as described herein. The computer code mayinclude instructions executable with the processor 402. The computercode may be written in any computer language, such as C, C++, assemblylanguage, channel program code, and/or any combination of computerlanguages. The memory 404 may store information in data structuresincluding, for example, data and/or signals 110 received from one ormore controls 106 and criteria associated with one or more identifiedstates, including response templates 408.

The I/O interface 406 may be used to connect devices such as, forexample, the sensors 104, the controls 106, the function controls 108and to other components of the system 400.

All of the disclosure, regardless of the particular implementationdescribed, is exemplary in nature, rather than limiting. The systems 100and 400 may include more, fewer, or different components thanillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4. Furthermore, each one of the components ofsystems 100 and 400 may include more, fewer, or different elements thanis illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4. Flags, data, databases, tables,entities, and other data structures may be separately stored andmanaged, may be incorporated into a single memory or database, may bedistributed, or may be logically and physically organized in manydifferent ways. The components may operate independently or be part of asame program or hardware. The components may be resident on separatehardware, such as separate removable circuit boards, or share commonhardware, such as a same memory and processor for implementinginstructions from the memory. Programs may be parts of a single program,separate programs, or distributed across several memories andprocessors.

The functions, acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described maybe executed in response to one or more sets of logic or instructionsstored in or on computer readable media. The functions, acts or tasksare independent of the particular type of instructions set, storagemedia, processor or processing strategy and may be performed bysoftware, hardware, integrated circuits, firmware, micro code and thelike, operating alone or in combination. Likewise, processing strategiesmay include multiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing,distributed processing, and/or any other type of processing. In oneembodiment, the instructions are stored on a removable media device forreading by local or remote systems. In other embodiments, the logic orinstructions are stored in a remote location for transfer through acomputer network or over telephone lines. In yet other embodiments, thelogic or instructions may be stored within a given computer such as, forexample, a CPU.

While various embodiments of the system and method for mitigatingunintended operation of in-vehicle controls have been described, it willbe apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of thepresent invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restrictedexcept in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.

1. A method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls comprising: receiving data or signals from one or more sensors; analyzing the received data or signals; determining when an identified state is occurring responsive the analysis; and modifying the response to one or more controls when the identified state is determined to be occurring.
 2. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where the received data or signals are derived from of any of: a steering wheel position sensor, an accelerometer, a multi-axis accelerometer, yaw sensor, pitch sensor, roll sensor, inclination sensor, braking indicator, speedometer, skid detector, and airbag deployment indicator.
 3. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where the one or more controls include of any of: buttons, levers, knobs, and touch-sensitive surfaces.
 4. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where analyzing the received data or signals includes analyzing of any of: current received data or signals, historical received data or signals, and a combination of current and historical received data or signals.
 5. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where the one or more controls provide input data or signals for functions including any of: turn signals, wiper/washer system, audio/infotainment system, hands-free telephony, cruise control, drivetrain/gear selection, heating ventilation and cooling (HVAC), and navigation system.
 6. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where the identified state is a function of changes in any of: vehicle direction, dynamic state and status
 7. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where determining when an identified state is occurring includes determining when one or more criterion are met to determine the on-set and abatement of the identified state.
 8. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, further comprising associating control interventions with one or more identified states where the associations are any of: pre-determined, pre-programmed and user configurable.
 9. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where determining when an identified state is occurring includes determining when any of the data or signals received from the one or more sensors exceeds one or more thresholds or contains one or more indications.
 10. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, where modifying the response to one or more controls when the identified state is determined to be occurring includes disabling or dampening the response to the one or more controls.
 11. The method for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 1, further comprising: determining abatement of the identified state; and reversing the modification of the response to one or more controls when the identified state is determined to be in abatement.
 12. A system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls comprising: at least one sensor that outputs data or signals; at least one control; at least one function controller responsive to the at least one control; and a mitigation logic unit to: receive the data or signals output by the at least one sensor; determine when an identified state is occurring by analyzing the received data or signals; and modify the response by the at least one function controller to the at least one control when the identified state is determined to be occurring.
 13. The system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 12, where modifying the response to one or more controls when the identified state is determined to be occurring includes disabling or dampening the response to the one or more controls.
 14. The system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 12, the mitigation logic unit further to modify or cancel an input from the at least one control before it reaches the at least one function controller.
 15. The system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 12, the mitigation logic unit further to provide additional input to the at least one function controller to cause it to modify its response to an input received from the at least one control.
 16. The system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls of claim 12, the mitigation logic unit further to: determine abatement of the identified state; and reverse the modification of the response to one or more controls when the identified state is determined to be in abatement.
 17. A system for mitigating unintended operation of in-vehicle controls comprising: a processor; an input/output interface to send and receive data and signals to or from at least one control, one or more sensors and at least one function controller; and memory storing instructions accessible by the processor, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, configuring the system to: receive the data or signals output by the at least one sensor; analyze the received data or signals; determine when an identified state is occurring responsive to the analysis of the received data or signals; and modify the response by the at least one function controller to the at least one control when the identified state is determined to be occurring. 